Researched Strategies

teacher researcherIn this section, you’ll find a list of instructional strategies that Marzano Research Laboratory (MRL) has identified for meta-analysis research. You can find data for all of these strategies in our Action Research Meta-Analysis Database.

Get Involved
MRL invites you to be a contributor in the ongoing research on the following strategies. To submit dissertations and studies based on one or more of these instructional strategies, visit our Submit Research page, where you can upload documents and enter the specific strategy your work is based on in the Additional Information box.

Strategies Used in Meta-Analysis Research

The Meta-Analytic Synthesis of Studies Conducted at Marzano Research Laboratory on Instructional Strategies report synthesizes a series of action research projects that target instructional strategies MRL has identified for meta-analysis research. The research was conducted between fall 2004 and spring 2009. The data used for analysis can be found in our Action Research Meta-Analysis Database.

Below you will find a numbered list of instructional strategies that have been utilized by classroom teachers in the independent action research studies reported in our Action Research Meta-Analysis Database (open database in new window). These numbers correspond to the strategy (ST) field in the database. When an independent action research study involved more than one instructional strategy, the study was reported in the database with each strategy.

Strategy: Description

  1. Advance Organizers: Providing students with a preview of new content More data available

  2. Building vocabulary: Using a complete six-step process to teach vocabulary that includes teacher explanation, student explanation, student graphic or pictographic representation, review using comparison activities, student discussion of vocabulary terms, and use of games More data available

  3. Complex cognitive tasks: Working on complex tasks such as investigation, problem solving, decision making, and experimental inquiry

  4. Cooperative learning: Students working together in small groups More data available

  5. Cues and questions: Using hints and questions to activate prior knowledge and deepen student understanding More data available

  6. Effort and recognition: Reinforcing and tracking student effort and providing recognition for achievement More data available

  7. Engagement strategies: Using activities designed to help capture students’ attention More data available

  8. Feedback: Providing students with information relative to how well they are doing regarding a specific assignment More data available

  9. Graphic organizers: Providing a visual display of something being discussed or considered (e.g., using a Venn diagram to compare two items)

  10. Homework: Providing students with opportunities to increase their understanding through assignments completed outside of class

  11. Identifying similarities and differences: Identifying similarities and/or differences between two or more items being considered

  12. Interactive games: Using academic content in game-like situations

  13. Kinesthetic activities: Students representing new content physically

  14. Nonlinguistic representations: Providing a representation of knowledge without words (e.g., a graphic representation or physical model)

  15. Note taking: Recording information that is considered important

  16. Partial vocabulary: Using one or more aspects of a six-step process to teach vocabulary which may include teacher explanation, student explanation, student graphic or pictographic representation, review using comparison activities, student discussion of vocabulary terms, and use of games

  17. Practice: Massed and distributed practice on a specific skill, strategy, or process

  18. Setting goals/objectives: Identifying a learning goal or objective regarding a topic being considered in class

  19. Student discussion/chunking: Breaking a lesson into chunks for student or group discussion regarding the content being considered

  20. Summarizing: Requiring students to provide a brief summary of content

  21. Tracking student progress and scoring scales: Using scoring scales and tracking student progress toward a learning goal More data available

  22. Voting technology: Using interactive clicker technology to collect data regarding student knowledge during class

0. Unidentified/other: Any strategy not named or not identified by the teacher conducting the research